financial security

Much media and policy attention is devoted to enhancing Americans’ long-term financial security. For example, financial planners work hard to help people boost their savings for the long term. Many firms automatically enroll workers in pension plans, sometimes with company matches, to help their employees build up retirement assets. Also, government policy promotes saving for old age, including the important tax deferral provided to qualified retirement plans.…Read More

Poor financial capability in old age can have serious repercussions, causing people to make mistakes with credit, draw down retirement assets too quickly, and fall victim to financial predators.…Read More

This spring, my son was given the popular “egg drop” science assignment. Several weeks before it was due, he discussed elaborate ideas and hoped that his egg would remain intact for extra credit. Yet, at the same time, the deadline was enough in the distant future that he felt no urgency to begin testing his ideas.…Read More

Baby Boomer women – now in their 50’s and 60’s – are doing worse financially than older women in the 1990s. My new research with Professor Annamaria Lusardi explains why, using national representative survey data from the Health and Retirement Study and the National Financial Capability Study. We track changes in older women’s work plans and debt burdens, along with the links to financial literacy and debt stressors.…Read More

Older women confront many retirement security challenges. For one thing, women live longer than do men, so their money must stretch farther. For another, many average fewer years in the paid workforce and, when they do work, their average pay is often lower. Additionally, they are more likely to work part-time, for a lower salary. These factors all translate into lower retirement accumulations, smaller retirement payouts, and higher poverty rates in old age, as reported in a recent Society of Actuaries 2014 study “Impact of Retirement Risk on Women.”…Read More